IlanaUK sees the 2022 Buhari Water Resources Bill as a continuation of the principle of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ that the British imposed on the Yoruba Nation by the Amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914. The Fulani have grown accustomed to feeding fat on others, and not surprisingly, they want it to continue forever. The Fulani have successfully annexed other peoples’ oil and gas resources. Now they want our water too. Our view at IlanaUK is that the time has come to call the Fulani’s bluff, reject Nigeria, and declare our Yoruba Nation.
 
The 2022 Bill is the third iteration of the same obnoxious Buhari plan that the Yoruba leadership rejected in 2016 and in 2020. Buhari does not have the same obsession that he has for this Bill for any other matters that concern Nigerians – insecurity, terrorism, kidnapping of school children, slaughtering of Christians in their churches, poverty, lack of education and skills, economy flat on its back – no amount of suffering by the masses fazes him. Buhari’s pathological obsession with the Water Resources Bill is to fulfil the directive of Ahmadu Bello, the Fulani leader, who said on 12 October 1960: ‘The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our grandfather, Othman Danfodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We must use the minorities in the North as willing tools & the South as conquered territories & never allow their future.’
 
Buhari is so confident of himself as a dictator that he does not care for the views or for the welfare of the indigenous peoples of Southern Nigeria. Buhari’s only interest is to transfer to the Fulani all land and water resources – surface and deep – belonging to the Yoruba and others. For the Yoruba people to have access to their own water, Buhari wants them to ask for permission from the Fulani in Abuja. Permission to sink borehole in your backyard; permission to worship Osun; permission to fish in your local stream or brook. What impertinence!
 
The Yoruba are entitled to exclusive occupation and use of their land, which would ‘enable them to ‘freely pursue, economic, social and cultural development’ and ‘freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources’ (Article 1 of the UN Charter and of the 1960 decolonisation resolution of the General Assembly). The customary international legal norm is that the land right of the Yoruba could not be abrogated without their consent (Article 10 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples). Indeed, the court held in Amodu Tijani v Secretary of Southern Nigeria (1921) AC 399, 401, that consent was required even before an Oba could cede land to the government. Article 47 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ICCPR) and Article 25 International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) protect the indigenous peoples’ land right against State Parties using imperialist tactics to deprive them of their land.
 
Incorporation of Yorubaland into the Nigeria state in 1914 did not deprive the Yoruba of inherent sovereignty over their land. Indeed, that was the basis of the regional arrangement that was ended in a bloody insurrection by the military in 1966. The Yoruba did not consent to the 1999 constitution, which was designed to rob Yorubaland of the benefits of our mineral resources and oil deposits. The frequent Fulani targeting of the Yoruba for extra-judicial killings and for terrorism is pursuant to the 1999 constitution. The Fulani will not stop until we declare an independent Yoruba Nation.  What are we waiting for?
 
We at IlanaUK implore the governors of the 8 Yoruba States, our Oba, heads of Yoruba cultural groups and heads of Yoruba self-determination organisations to join us to make clear to Buhari that we Yoruba have sovereignty over our land and water resources. Yoruba land and water resources belong exclusively to the Yoruba and not to Nigeria. The 12 Arewa States relied on this inherent sovereignty over their land when they independently declared Sharia Criminal Law on their land. Our inherent sovereignty over our Yoruba land entitles us to self-determination. Let’s do it.
 
Baasegun (Dr) Olusola Oni
Coordinator IlanaUK
 
Over 8,000 people worldwide have now signed our petition to the UN for self-determination for the Yoruba people of Nigeria - http://chng.it/QJp8yJ6hPs 10,000 signatures is the target. We are nearly there. Please make it happen. Your signature costs you nothing.